iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

📢 New Blog Post How did Europe's first #farmers 10,000 years ago interact with their environment? 🌾 Dr. Johanna Hilpert shares how HESCOR researchers are studying the #Linearbandkeramik culture and their relationship with the environment! 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/E6alg #Neolithic #LBK

Example of sites and Human Existence Potential (HEP) calculations in the western distribution of the earliest Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK). Regions with higher potential (higher HEP values) are indicated in red tones, ranging from light to dark. Black dots mark sites of the earliest LBK occupation (after Fischer & Hilpert). The background map is the EMODnet World Base Map.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

📢 New Publication Why did humans intermittently use harsh Afroalpine environments in prehistory?⛰️ Dr Götz Ossendorf et al. present new data from Ethiopia's Bale Mountains offering insights into past landscape change & high-altitude human adaptation! 🔗 shorturl.at/S5dbm #Ethiopia #Alpinearchaeology

Maps of the Bale Mountains region illustrating key archaeological and environmental archives discussed in the paper. Figure Credit: Alexander R. Groos

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

📢 New Blog Post How did past humans utilize some of Africa’s highest landscapes? ⛰️ In his new publication, Dr. Götz Ossendorf explores evidence that reveals how humans 15,000 years ago took advantage of newly ice-free landscapes in #Ethiopia. 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/9VPId

The image shows co-author of the related paper Minassie Girma Tekelemariam and a colleague at an archaeological excavation in the Ethiopian highlands. Photo Credit: Götz Ossendorf

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

📢 New Publication Dr Yaping Shao and colleagues present a new open-access PLOS ONE study simulating population dynamics during the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic Transition (ca. 50–38 ka) on the Iberian Peninsula. #MiddlePalaeolithic #Neanderthals #Aurignacien #AMH 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/YU0Da

Displayed are the MP (blue triangle), AUR-P1 (solid red circle), and AUR-P2 sites (open red circle). Three special Aurignacian sites — Cardina-Salto do Boi, Abrigo de la Malia, and Lapa do Picareiro — are also indicated. The last Neanderthal (NEA) refugia are primarily located in coastal areas, delineated by a dashed blue circle. The initial expansion routes of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) associated with AUR-P1 are shown with thick solid red arrows. The subsequent Duero route, extending from Cantabria into inland Iberia, is represented by thick dashed red arrows. The expansion pathways of AMHs linked to AUR-P2 are marked by thin dashed red arrows. A potential zone of admixture between NEAs and AMHs is identified along the northern Iberian coast, enclosed by a white dashed circle.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

📢 New Publication How can environmental records be recovered from the Ethiopian Rift? Dr Verena Foerster-Indenhuck and colleagues show how overlapping sediment cores from the Chew Bahir drilling campaign enable reconstructions of past climate and human evolution!🔬 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/BzEDT

Scientific coring campaigns in the Chew Bahir basin. Drilling pilot core CB-01-2009 close to the western basin margin in 2009, using a rotary single tube drill, with the cored sediment segments in the transport crate with a core diameter of 91 mm. Transect short cores across the basin were collected with a vibro-corer and smaller diameter liners. HSPDP deep-drilling campaign in November–December 2014, ∼ 3 km away from the western margin using duplicate coring strategy and soft-sediment coring tools (left: alien corer; right: extended nose corer, with non-rotating shoe). Six small ponds were excavated to store the daily required 40 000 L of drilling fluid per day. Recovered core segments were processed, weighed, measured and sealed for transport in the nearby science tent. Photos by the CHB science team.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

📢 HESCOR Seminar #UoC Master's students! 👋 Curious about how humans and the Earth interact in complex, dynamic systems? 🌐🤝 Explore cutting-edge research and modelling approaches from climate science, archaeology, mathematics, and the humanities – all in one seminar! 🔗 read more: shorturl.at/OxQzZ

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

📢 New Blog Post How might the first anatomically modern humans have migrated across Europe? 🌍👣 @isabell-schmidt.bsky.social explores this question using the “Our Way Model” and results from our recent Nature Communications paper! 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/5WsC6

A topographical map of Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Levant showing the chronological expansion of modern humans. Colored contour lines (blue to green) represent arrival times in thousands of years ago (ka), moving from the Levant (older dates) into Western Europe (younger dates). Red dots identify key archaeological sites with specific date ranges.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

📢 New Blog Post How can a rock from hundreds of kilometers away become a stone tool? Dr. Johanna Hilpert explains how HESCOR researchers study prehistoric #networks of interaction and #exchange 🌐🤝 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/f0t5G #Magdalenian #LBK #Modelling

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

📢 New Blog Post Lakes may seem stable in our everyday experience, but over hundreds to thousands of years they can change a lot! Dr. Elena Robakiewicz explains lake #coring and what Lake Nakuru (Kenya) reveals about the past 35,000 years!🔬 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/FRHLi

Different measurements from Lake Nakuru through time. This includes diatoms that represent at least 10% in one sample ; T. Index which shows potential depth; conductivity (amount of salts in the lake); aridity (Dim1 and K/Ti); biological productivity (Dim2, Ca/Mg, Si/Zr, Sr/Ti, and inc/coh); and anoxia (Dim3, Mo, and Fe/Mn). Global climate phases are highlighted with the anticipated dry phase (Last Glacial Maximum, LGM) in brown and the anticipated wet phase in blue (Bølling–Allerød interstadial, B-A).

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

📢 New Blog Post Understanding #reconstructions of past vegetation can be difficult…. @oliverkern.bsky.social introduces his PALVEG app to make the maps from #paleovegetation reconstructions more accessible to researchers across all disciplines! 💻🌳 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/dNas6

User interface of the PALVEG app. In the panel on the left hand side, various options such as the desired time interval, specific (groups of) taxa, and different display options can be selected. On the right hand side, maps are dynamically generated based on the user input.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

📢 New Blog Post How can machine learning be used in archaeology? 💻 Dr. Boqiang Huang lists the ways that archaeologists could use machine learning to revolutionize standard archaeological methods. 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/PRwTl

The figure depicts the four ways that Machine Learning can benefit archaeology: feature detection, site identification, chronological modelling, and artifact classification.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

📢 New Blog Post How can we actually map out potential patterns of human #migration? Max Brockmann discusses how he and Lena Perlberg use methods of #probability to estimate how earlier humans may have moved throughout Europe! 🌍 #modelling #leastcostpath #costmap 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/lIKIB

Visualization of the least-cost path between three points, calculated using Dijkstra's algorithm. The route successfully circumvents major topographical obstacles like the Alps and the Pyrenees, while also finding optimal passages through the mountains where necessary. (copyright: Lena Perlberg).

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

📢 New Blog Post How did #Palaeolithic humans cope with the sudden cold of the Younger Dryas (~12,000 years ago) in Europe? ❄️ A team led by HESCOR’s @isabell-schmidt.bsky.social and Andreas Maier has answers! 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/n2tND

The map shows population shifts from south-western to north-eastern Europe during the last cold phase of the Ice Age. Photo: Isabell Schmidt, University of Cologne.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

📢 New Blog Post Living in high-altitudes is challenging - but humans in the #Ethiopian highlands have done it for tens of thousands of years! Dr. Götz Ossendorf introduces his hypothesis that social connectedness allowed past humans to endure such harsh conditions! 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/vH1en

View from the Afroalpine Plateau into the lowlands (Bale Mountains, SE Ethiopia).

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

Shumon T. Hussain @shumon.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Upcoming @hescor.bsky.social and @mesh-research-hub.bsky.social event at the University of Cologne on the "Politics of More-Than-Human Life and Earth System Science" with an exciting programme: www.hescor-project.com/news/politic...

hescor-project.com

Politics of more-than-human life and Earth System Science - Hescor

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

📢 New Blog Post How might an #interdisciplinary database work? HESCOR Project Database Manager, Philipp Schlüter, lays out the technical problems and potential solutions for creating HESCOR's #database. 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/g3P7l

Diagram showing a virtual machine running a Docker environment. Inside Docker are four isolated containers: NGINX proxy, CKAN application, PostgreSQL (metadata), and SOLR search—representing the HESCOR database components running separately.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

📢 New Blog Post What have we learned from animals and they from us? @shumon.bsky.social & Dr. Dominik Ohrem highlight their research to better integrate the ways that humans and animals learn from each other and how that knowledge-sharing impacts the Earth System! 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/6zdAa

The figure contains graphical, iconic (human and animal icons) and textual elements. They are horizontally arranged to form three separate compartments, each of which is populated by a different configuration of humans and animals, accompanied by a symbolic and descriptive qualification of the associated learning mode. On the left, humans learn to think about themselves and their worlds through other animals (for example a raven), exemplified by the question “Who am I in this world?” (learning through). In the middle, humans take inspiration from other animals (for example beavers) in how to manipulate their environments, exemplified by the realization “Ah, this is how it works!” (learning from). On the right, humans make themselves at home in the world in such a way that they can coinhabit their environments with other animals (for example wolves), thereby co-learning how to live effectively in these environments with the respective animals (learning with). The framing arrows on the top and bottom indicate that human cultural frameworks can be expected to shape these modes of learning to various degrees and that their behavioural integration can be expected to differ across spatiotemporal scales.

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

📢 New Blog Post How can we actually model human migration? Max Brockmann breaks down how mathematicians can use Partial Differential Equations to #model continental-scale human #migrations in prehistory! 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/vROZj #PDE #data #mathematics #interdisciplinary #prehistory

shorturl.at

Modelling human migration on networks using partial differential equations - Hescor

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

📢 New Blog Post What does innovation have to do with #population? And what drives #innovation - hardship or abundance? @tilmanhartley.bsky.social explores some of the theoretical questions about how different aspects of #human #societies might impact innovation! 🔗 read on here: shorturl.at/KSiJK

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How do population size and connectedness, and resource scarcity and sufficiency, influence technological innovation? - Hescor

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

📢 Join #HESCOR at the #VarI #Tag-der-Archäologie this Saturday (July 5, 11–17 h) in Bonn! Tilman and Johanna will present our research on long-term #human–environment interactions. Discover #archaeological institutions and projects in #Cologne & #Bonn. More info here:

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

Maca Iglesias @rotterdamvvg.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

When was the last time we wondered about who puts things on shelves? Today, those invisible ones are seen only to be criminalized for fleeing poverty and oppression. Are they really stealing a glamorous life from us? Pass it on if you stand with those who work in the shadows. #OnYourSide

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

What is HESCOR? 🤔 Join Andreas Maier and Nikki Vercauteren for insights into HESCOR‘s vision and research goals! want to learn more? hescor-project.com #HESCOR #Interdisciplinary #UniCologne #EarthSystem #HumanSystem #ResearchProject #Culture #Nature

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Reposted by Dr. Isabell Schmidt

HESCOR - Human & Earth System Coupled Research @hescor.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Hello Bluesky! 👋 Welcome to the official Bluesky account of #HESCOR - an interdisciplinary research project based at the #UniCologne! We explore how the human and earth system co-evolve, bridging natural sciences, system modelling, and the humanities. 🔗 Learn more: www.hescor-project.com

hescor-project.com

HESCOR: Human & Earth System Coupled Research

HESCOR unites Earth system science, human modelling & humanities to study how climate and culture have co-evolved across history.

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